round.

"You have killed him!" exclaimed all.

"No," said Mr. Edison. "He is not dead, only asleep. Now we shall drop
down and bind him tight before he can awake."

When we came to bind our prisoner with strong ropes we were more than
ever impressed with his gigantic stature and strength. Evidentially in
single combat with equal weapons he would have been a match for twenty
of us.

[Illustration: _"When we came to bind our prisoner with strong ropes
we were more than ever impressed with his gigantic stature and strength.
He might have been a match for twenty of us."_]

All that I had read of giants had failed to produce upon my mind the
impression of enormous size and tremendous physical energy which the
sleeping body of this immense Martian produced. He had fallen on his
back, and was in a most profound slumber. All his features were relaxed,
and yet even in that condition there was a devilishness about him that
made the beholders instinctively shudder.

So powerful was the effect of the anaesthetic which Mr. Edison had
discharged into his face that he remained perfectly unconscious while we
turned him half over in order the more securely to bind his muscular
limbs.

In the meantime the other electrical ships approached, and several of
them made a landing upon the asteroid. Everybody was eager to see this
wonderful little world, which, as I have already remarked, was only five
miles in diameter.

Several of us from the flagship started out hastily to explore the
miniature planet. And now our attention was recalled to an intensely
interesting phenomenon which had engaged our thoughts not only when we
were upon the moon, but during our flight through space. This was the
almost entire absence of weight.

On the moon, where the force of gravitation is one-sixths as great as
upon the earth, we had found ourselves astonishingly light. Five-sixths
of our own weight, and of the weight of the air-tight suits in which we
were encased, had magically dropped from us. It was therefore
comparatively easy for us, encumbered, as we were, to make our way about
on the moon.

But when we were far from both the earth and the moon, the loss of
weight was more astonishing still--not astonishing because we had not
known that it would be so, but nevertheless a surprising phenomenon in
contrast with our lifelong experience on the earth.

In open space we were practically without weight. Only the mass of the
electrical car in whi